It was a close race, though mostly the Republican usually ran unopposed here, so who knows what could’ve happened in the past had someone stepped up, and James Malone wasn’t running against an incumbent Republican. But of course this was probably helped by the fact that a lot of people discovering how much politics actually affects their lives with all the mayhem going on in the federal government. But I think it’s more than the national situation. This is a county that’s been taken over by some fringe right-wing extremists on the local level which might’ve gotten more voters engaged.
I posted about this in my newsletter and my tumblr last year: From pandemic denial conspiracy fictions, to anti-trans… extremists took over yet another school board in Pennsylvania.
Lancaster Online – ‘Shock and disbelief’: Democrats’ victory in 36th state Senate race stuns Lancaster County JAXON WHITE | Staff Writer March 27, 2025 It had been a running gag in Lancaster County politics these past few months that maybe county Commissioner Chairman Josh Parsons would flub the 36th Senate District race. The sheer improbability of that suggestion made it funny. Maybe Republican voters would take for granted their heavy advantage in the 36th and not turn out at the polls. (Unlikely.) And maybe anger at President Donald Trump would motivate Democrats to vote in droves in the special election. (Unlikely.) But on Tuesday night, those jokes were no laughing matter for the GOP. Come 10:15 p.m., James Malone, the two-term, part-time mayor of East Petersburg Borough, had pulled off the most significant political upset in Lancaster County history by defeating Parsons in a county that hasn’t elected a Democrat to the state Senate since 1889.